Cheerleaders love basketball which, by
its very nature, offers many opportunities to shine: the sport is practiced
indoors, includes considerable down time and features a parquet floor. “Our
style is different. We don’t chant or shake pompoms like U.S. cheerleaders.
Here, the focus is on offering a high-quality dance performance,” says Elena
Solodovnikova, head cheerleader of Moscow’s BC Khimki.

Her squad is famous for performing a
spectacular routine to the beat of Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus” at the end
of the third quarter; the routine ends with a cheerleader climbing up to the
rim of the hoop.

“Our group is unique because all
10 cheerleaders are professionally trained in rhythmic or artistic
gymnastics,” says Maria Drozdova of Moscow’s BC Triumph Lyubertsy. She combines
cheering with a second job as a personal trainer at a gym in the capital city.

This is a common occurrence: Although
Russian cheerleaders are usually paid for their work, cheering is a part-time
job that does not cover the entire cost of living. Only one cheerleading squad—
the CSKA Red Foxes (famous not only in Russia, but throughout Europe)—can boast
pay of over €1,000 (about $1,300) a month.

Most cheerleaders are students in their
last years of college, former gymnasts who fell by the wayside, or, like Maria,
personal trainers or dance instructors.

Cheerleading squads are usually formed
two months before the start of the season, to permit time for organizing
tryouts and designing clothes and choreographed routines. Squads include at
least seven members. When teams play international competitors, cheerleaders
often prepare routines specifically for their team’s opponents.

The Red Foxes’ repertoire, for example,
includes a flamenco-inspired number they perform when CSKA plays against
Spanish teams in the Euro League, which has already occurred at least five
times this season.

In the past, each Russian basketball
cheerleading squad had the opportunity to present five choreographed routines
before a jury, as part of an annual contest. CSKA’s squad won several times,
prompting rumors that they enjoyed an unfair advantage. Some Russian clubs,
like their U.S. counterparts, include clauses in their contracts that
explicitly prohibit cheerleaders from having relationships with any of their
team’s players. In fact, practices are scheduled to prevent overlapping use of
the court.

However, at least one relationship has
blossomed between a CSKA player and one of the team’s cheerleaders. Indeed,
cheerleaders draw the attention of fans and players alike. In 2011, for
example, Spartak’s Diniyar Bilyaletdinov married Maria Pozdnyakova, who was a
member of the Red Foxes squad when they met.

This year, the Baltic League
organized a beauty contest based on popular vote, allowing fans to vote for
their favorite “Miss Cheerleader” on the official website. After months of
preliminary rounds, BC Tsmoski-Minsk’s Veronica Teplyakova was declared the
winner. Teplyakova is a student at the Belarusian State University and, on the
heels of this year’s win, has signed with a modeling agency.

More about women in sport:

Although low temperatures on the ice pose
some challenges, they do not prevent Russia’s hockey teams from including
cheerleading squads as part of their matches. The cheerleaders make the most of
the situation, stationing themselves on a platform in the stands (when not
performing) and sometimes wearing pants to combat the cold. Occasionally, they
limit their choreography to cheering with pompoms, as the stands are often too
cramped to accommodate more complex routines.

There are even cheerleaders at volleyball
matches, although their league is smaller and therefore fails to garner as much
attention. Recently, cheerleading has also broken into the sacred sport of
soccer. Clubs like Zenit and Spartak have cheerleading squads, whose members
take control of the turf before the game and during halftime.

Inclement weather (cold and rain), of
course, is one challenge for cheerleaders. However, the greatest obstacle is
the distance to the stands. From the cheerleaders’ platform, you can barely see
what happens on the field without binoculars—particularly if the stadium has a
track, as is the case at both Petrovsky and Luzhniki.